Nelnet shares fall on lower Q2 profit

Redacción de Reuters

2 MIN. DE LECTURA

Aug 11 (Reuters) - Shares of Nelnet Inc (NNI.N) fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday, a day after the student loans provider posted lower second-quarter profit, hurt mainly by a fall in interest income. Nelnet reported a profit of $8.2 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with $43.7 million, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, it earned $29.7 million, or 60 cents a share.

For the second quarter, the company said its net interest income dropped 22 percent to $57.1 million and its other income, which includes enrolment services revenue, fell 33 percent to $62.4 million.

On June 17, The U.S. Department of Education awarded contracts to SLM Corp SLM.N, Nelnet and two other companies to service its $550 billion student loan portfolio, as the government prepares to shift much of the nation’s student lending into a direct loan program. [ID:nN17354927]

The company said it will begin servicing the government contract later in the third quarter.

Shares of the company were down more than 4 percent at $14.12 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a low of $14 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Archana Shankar in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)